A terminal equipment including a mobile phone equipped with a location information detecting function such as the GPS, and also having state detecting means such as an automatic or manual emergency sensor or abnormality sensor is getting more compact and a cost therefore is getting lowered with the progress in the current technologies. Further, reliability on impact resistance and the like has been improved. Such a terminal is mounted on a vehicle to provide an emergency report system for traffic accidents and implemented in pendant format to provide a man location system for those who have chronic diseases such as a heart attack.
An on-vehicle terminal mounted on a vehicle will be described among the aforementioned terminals. Such an on-vehicle terminal acquires location information every fixed time or every fixed distance with a system to detect location information such as the GPS, and memorizes path information of a plurality of locations (points) when the terminal is moving. In the related art, when the status of the on-vehicle terminal itself was changed or was requested by an information service center (hereinafter referred to as a center), the on-vehicle terminal transmits the path information of the past several points just before transmitting to the center by using a predetermined communication protocol. On the other hand, on receiving the travel path information, the center plots the path information over a digital map displayed on an operator console with superimposing it to check the travel history of a vehicle mounting an on-vehicle terminal.
FIG. 8 shows the configuration of an on-vehicle terminal and a service center according to the conventional art. An on-vehicle terminal 1 is composed of location information detecting means 11 for obtaining location information by using the GPS; first radio communication means 12 for transmitting location information etc. by radio to an information service center 2 via an antenna 19b; a CPU 10 for controlling the location information detecting means 11 and on-vehicle terminal path display function means 22, a display 15 for displaying the operating state of the on-vehicle terminal 1 and the report to the crew, an emergency button 13 for manually starting an emergency report in an emergency, and a state sensor 14 for automatically detecting an abnormal state such as an accident or sudden illness and starting an emergency report.
The information service center 2 is composed of a first radio communication means 21 for receiving the location information transmitted from the on-vehicle terminal 1 via an antenna 29; an on-vehicle terminal path is display function 22 for displaying the path of the on-vehicle terminal 1 on an operator console 23 according to the location information; a map display function 24 for extracting map data including the moving path of the on-vehicle terminal from a map database (hereinafter referred as the map DB) 25 and displaying the map data on the operator console 23; a CPU 20 for controlling the on-vehicle terminal path display function means 22; and the operator console display 23 for displaying the moving path of the on-vehicle terminal 1 over the map with superposing the path.
Performance of the on-vehicle terminal 1 and the service center 2 configured according to the above conventional art will be described with FIG. 8. The on-vehicle terminal 1 uses the location information detecting means 11 to detect location information. The on-vehicle terminal 1, on automatic or manual detection of an abnormal state, originates a trigger to start emergency report operation. Further, the on-vehicle terminal 1 adds a terminal ID to the location information to generate transmittal information and transmits this information from the first radio communication means 12 toward the first radio communication means 21 of the information service center.
The center 2 receives location information and a terminal ID from the on-vehicle terminal 1 by using the first radio communication means 21. The center 2 checks on that the owner of the on-vehicle terminal 1 is a member who has a right to get services from the center 2 with the terminal ID. The center 2 creates path data from the received location information and displays the path data on the digital map with superposing them.
FIG. 9 shows the details of the conventional communication procedure. In FIG. 9, the basic sequence is the overall processing procedure. The location information shows the format of transmission data and composed of point attribute information, data on points l through n, and text data. The point k information among the sent data shown in FIG. 9 shows details of the point k. Detailed point information consists of time data, latitude/longitude information, point-to-point mileage data, and turning data.
The conventional communication procedure will be described in FIG. 9. First, a message type indicating the type of data, basic data or extended data, is transmitted as the basic sequence. Next, the length of message data is transmitted. Then, the body of message data is transmitted.
The body of message data is composed of a terminal ID consisting of a serial number and telephone number, state information consisting of sensor information, and location information. When the body of message data has been transmitted, data communications are switched to voice communications and voice conversation is made between the crew and the operator in the center.
A conventional example of such an on-vehicle terminal is a location information transmitter disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 18648/1994. This apparatus is a location information transmitter that aims at automatically outputting correct location information via simple manipulation and that acquires location information via GPS satellites to output radio waves.
An on-vehicle terminal according to the conventional art measures the current location of the vehicle, and obtains the location information consisting of the latitude, longitude and altitude by using the GPS satellites. The on-vehicle terminal assembles the location information, origination start time and recognition code into an origination signal according to the origination signal format. The on-vehicle terminal outputs the location information of the originating party with radio wave by modulating the high-frequency carrier with the origination signal.
Assume an exemplary application to a system where a conventional on-vehicle terminal is mounted on a vehicle and the location information on the vehicle is reported to the center in an emergency such as a traffic accident. When a traffic accident takes place, the crew should escape from the vehicle without delay to secure safety against a secondary disaster, according to the manual for traffic rules. Accordingly, there is a problem that it is impossible to report to the center from a vehicle involved in an accident.